Pile fabric loom and pile wire therefor



Jan. 13, 1959 w. Y, ROBE 2,868,231

FILE FABRIC LOOM AND FILE WIRE THEREFOR Filed Jan. 27, 1955 WWI" lNVENTbR WALTER Y. ROBB mm rm ATTORNEY United States PatentO PILE FABRIC LooM AND PILE WIRE THEREFOR Walter Y. Robb, Whitinsville, Mass., assignor to Crompton &'Knowles Loom Works, Worcester, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application January 27, 1955, Serial No. 484,479

Claims. (Cl. 139-46) This invention relates to pile fabric looms more particularly ofthe type employing longitudinal pile wires and it is the general object of the invention to provide a loom and pile wire therefor by which a fabric having patterned embossed effects can be produced.

A known type of pile fabric loom operates with stationary pile wires which are generally parallel to the warp threads and are fixed to the loom either at their forward or their rearward ends. Each color yarn which is to form a pile is lifted from one side of a pile wire, shifted laterally, and then lowered on the other side of the wire so that a tuft loop extending over the wire can be incorporated into a ground weave. As made heretofore such looms have been provided with pile. wires which could produce only one height of pile and were therefore not adapted for producing embossed effects.

It is an important object of the present invention to provide a pile tufe former movable back and forth in the loom and made at its forward endwith at least two tuft forming parts of different heights. Either of these two parts can be moved .to the tuft forming position by operating means connected to the tuft former.

It-is the further object of the invention to provide guide means, which may although not necessarily be in the form of a pile wire, for the tuft former. Mounted on the guide means is a lever which is operatively connected to the tuft former for the purpose of moving the latter with respect to the guide. As shown hereinafter the lever is pulled in one direction by means connected to a form of pattern mechanism shown here as a jacquard and is moved in the opposite direction by means of a leaf spring one end of which is secured to :he guide and the other end of which bears against the ever.

It is a further object of the invention to support the aforementioned tuft forming parts by said guide means when either of these parts are in tuft forming position.

The lay which beats up the weft will ordinarily have a g1ven range of back and forth motion to beat up the weft which is laid in front of it when the lay is in rearmost position. It is a further object of the inventlon to locate the lever on the pile wire rearwardly of the range of lay motion so that the lever can move between the extents of its angular motion without risk of interference with the lay.

It is the further object of the invention to provide an improved pile wire for the loom, the pile wire having a flat body on which the tuft former slides and on which the aforesaid lever is pivoted. A connection is provided between the lever and the tuft former effective to transmit positive moving force to the tuft former whether the lever is moved rearwardly by connections to the pattern mechanism or forwardly by the leaf spring. The pile wire is made with a recess to accommodate part of the connection between the tuft former moving lever and the pattern mechanism.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood reference is made to the accompanying drawing which 503 By means of bolts 12 a back plate 13 is held to the part 2,868,231 Patented Jam. 13, 1959 Figs. 3 and 4 are enlarged vertical sections on line 33 and 44 respectively, Fig. 2,

Fig. 5 is an enlarged horizontal section Fig. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary section on line 66.

Fig. 4, showing parts of the pile wire, the real part of on line 5-5,

the tuft former, and the upper end of the operating lever.

for the tuft former, v s

Fig. 7 is a detailed fragmentary plan view on an enlarged scale looking in the direction of arrow 7, Fig. 1,

Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic view showing the manner of forming a tuft over the higher part of the tuft former, and

Fig. 9 is a view similar to Fig. 8 but showing the narrower part of the tuft former in tuft forming position.

Referring more particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, a loom frame 1 supports a cloth board 2 over which the fabric F is led forwardly, to the left in Fig. l, by takeup mechanism not shown herein. The loo-m is provided with a lay L which supports a reed R the dents 3 of which extend upwardly therefrom as suggested in Fig. 1.. The lay moves backwardly and forwardly through a range of motion, the rear part of which is substantially as shown in Fig. l and the forward part of which is indicated in dotted lines in that figure.

The loom operates with warp threads WG which form the ground weave of the fabric and also with tuft forming color warp yarns CY. These various warp threads can be manipulated by harness frames shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1. The front harness frame 5 raises and lowers thecolor yarns all of which may be of the same color, while the second and third harness frames 6 and 7 control the sheets of warp WG which provide the ground weave. Other warp threads are sometimes used in producing fabrics of the general type to which the present invention relates and can be used but are not shown herein, and more harnesses than those shown in 6 and 7 can be employed for the ground weave, if desired.

Extending across the loom is a support 10 including an L-shaped part 11 for attachment to the lower rear ends of pile wires which are designated generally at P.

11 and by means of bolts 14 a front plate 15.is held to the part 11. Between the rear and front plates 13 and 15 is located the feet 16 of the pile wires, the latter being notched at 17 to receive a rib 18 on the front plate 15 to determine the vertical position of the pile wires. This particular method of supporting the pile wires may be varied, but it is desirable that the pile wires be supported at their rear lower ends in a manner substantially the same as that shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

A traversing comb Zll of usual'form is provided as indicated in Fig. 1 and is operated by mechanism not shown to move crosswise in the loom for the purpose of shifting the raised color yarns CY laterally in opposite directions.

Teeth 21 of this comb extend slightly below the tops of the pilewires to be described in more detail hereinafter but terminate above the top warp shed WG so as not to affect the position of the latter during the lateral shifting motionJ t The matter thus far described except as noted hereinafter may be made and operated in the usual manner.

The weft may be laid by a needle N which passes through is withdrawn from the shed the reed beats up.

'varied depending upon the weaving of the fabric being used but this harness frame will be raised once for each tuft forming operation to lift the color yarns between the comb teeth 21 and then lowered to permit the color yarns to pass down on the opposite sides of the pile wires. in carrying the invention into effect the pile wire is f'made as shown in more detail in Pig. 2 and comprises a flatsheet metal body with which a foot is already described is integral. The rear part of the pile wire extends upwardly and may be made with a point 31, al-

. though this may not be necessary in ail instances. The pile wire has a forwardly extending part in which is mounted a sliding tuft former 33 having prefcrabiy parallel s'ides-t'o fit into a dovetail groove 34 formed in the body 34 The front end of the tuft former has two tuft rein the that deforming parts of different heights. As show; front part35 is lower than the rear part 36 so pending upon the longitudinal position of the tuft former 33 eitherlow or high tufts can be formed.

Operating means are provided for the tuft former 3E; and these include a lever 41%, a connector ill, and a spring 42. The lever is fiat and is pivoted at 43 to the body 3d and has the upper end 44 thereof shaped more or less as shown in Fig. 6 to fit into a downwardly opening notch 45 in the rear end of the tuft former 33.

The connector 41 is attached as at so to the upper end of lever if) and as shown in Fig. 1 extends rearwardly partly around a roller 51 and then forwardly to a pattern mechanism designated generally at As shown herein this pattern mechanism is shown as part of a jacquard having a cylinder 53 which positions cards 54 to control the position of needles one of which is shown at 55. There is a needle for each connector lit and uprights so which are pushed to the left, Fig. 1, by blank places in the jacquard cards to clear a griife 57 and remain in downward position to permit the corresponding tuft former to be in the forward position shown in Pig. 8. When a needle penetrates a hole in the pattern card it permits the corresponding upright to remain in the position shown in Fig. 1 so that upward motion of the griffe 57' will pull the corresponding tuft former rearwardly to the position shown in Fig. 9. The pattern mechanism 52 shown herein can produce any desired form of embossing due to its capability to individually select and control each pile former but it is not the only form of pattern mechanism which can be employed to carry the invention into effect, and if a simple embossing is desired a less complicated pattern mechanism can be used.

The pile wire body 3th is provided with a recess 60 in which the lever 44} can swing and a part of this recess opens rearwardly as at 61 to provide a passageway for the forward end of the connector all.

The previously described spring 42 is preferably of the leaf type and as shown herein has its lower end 65 secured to the pile wire and has its upper end 66 bearing against the rear edge of the associated lever. The effect of the spring is to move the lever 4e forwardly while the effect of the connector 41 is to move the lever rearwardly. The lever, the connector all, and the spring 42 may be considered collectively to constitute operating means for the tuft former by which the back and forth position of the latter is determined. it is to be understood however that the operating means for the tuft former is not necessarily limited to the details shown herein. It should be understood also that in certain aspects of the invention the pile wire may be considered also as guide means for the tuft former.

in the operation of the invention the pattern mecha nism will control the positions of the tuft formers 33 for eachtuft forming operation of the loom. Any spring 42 free to do so moves its tuft former to front position as shown in Fig. 8 so that a high tuft T shown in that figure can be formed over the higher part 36 of the tuft former When a tuft former is moved rearwardly by a pull exerted on its connector 43 by the pattern mechanism low tuft Tl can be formed over the forward lower part .Jdi of the tuft former, see Fig. 9. This control of each tuft former can be exercised for each tuft forming operation so that any desired form of embossing can be produced in the fabric. it is to be understood that for any row of tufts across the loom some can be high while othbe low, depending upon the control exercised by the pattern mechanism over the tuft former 33 and the tuft forming operation with respect to each tuft former 33 is independent of the similar operation having the other tuft formers.

The body of the pile wire P is cut away as at 70 to provide clearance and reduce friction with respect to the motion of lever is but as shown in Fig. 2 the upper end of the spring 42 extends above the cut away part 70 so that it is positioned by the web "iil forming part of the pile wire and defining the bottom of the recess oil. The web '71 therefore prevents misalignment in one direction of each spring 4-2 with respect to its associated lever 46-.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the invention sets forth simpie means by which an embossed effect can be produced in a pile wire fabric woven in a loom equipped with longitudinal pile wires which extend generally in the direction of the warp threads. The embossing effect as set forth herein is attained by the use of longitudinal movable tuft formers 33 which at their forward ends have two parts of different heights. Operating means for tuft former are provided to change the position of the tuft former with respect to the pile wire so that either the forward low part 3d or the rear high part 36 can be in tuft forming position. The operating means for the tuft former can, if desired, be operated by every tuft forming beat of the loom although this may not 'be' necessary if a simple form of embossing effect is desired. The lever 4d fits into the notch 4-5 so that it can move the tuft further 33 positively whether moving forwardly. or rearwardly. The pile wire, which in some'respects can be considered as a guide means for the tuft former 33, is provided with a recess at its rear end for the passage of the connector 41. The body 39, lever 40, connector 41 and the spring 42 ali occupy a space widthwise of the loom normally occupied by a pile wire.

. Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, what is claimed is: v

i. In a pile wire for weaving embossed patterns, a flat bodyhaving provision at the rear end thereof for attach ment to a support, a flat pile former slidable on the body inagenerally back and forth direction and having the forward end thereof provided with two tuft loop engaging parts of different heights, the planes of the flat body and fiat former being substantially parallel, and means operatively connected to said former by which the position of said parts can be changed relatively to said body.

2. A pile wire as set forth in claim 1 wherein said means includes a lever operatively related to said former and pivoted to said flat body.

3. A pile wire as set forth in claim 1 wherein the flat body has an elongated groove on one side thereof and said former fits into and is slidable along said groove.

4. A pile wire as set forth in claim 1 wherein said means includes a lever pivoted to said flat body and a spring supported by the flat body effective to urge the lever in a given direction with respect to said body.

n 5. A pile wire as set forth in claim 2 wherein the lever pivots in the plane of the flat body when moved by said spring.

6. A pile wire as set forth in claim 4 wherein an operating member is connected to the lever to move the latter in a direction opposite to said given direction.

7. A pile wire as set forth in claim 6 wherein the flat body is formed with a recess opening rearwardly therefrom and through which said operating member passes.

8. In a pile fabric loom having means to form sheds in warp threads and operating with a reed having a range of back and forth motion to beat up weft laid in the shed forward of the reed, a stationary pile wire supported by the loom behind said range and extending forwardly through said reed in a direction generally parallel to the warp threads, a pile former extending through the reed slidable on said pile wire having the forward end thereof provided with two tuft forming parts of different heights, and operating means rearward of said range effective to move said former backwardly and forwardly with respect to said pile wire to place one or the other of said parts in tuft forming position.

9. The loom set forth in claim 8 wherein said operating means includes a lever pivoted to the pile wire.

10. The loom set forth in claim 9 wherein the extent of angular movement of the lever is rearward of said range.

11. The loom set forth in claim 9 wherein operative connections between the lever and said former move the latter positively in response to angular movement of the lever either forwardly or rearwardly with respect to the pile wire.

12. The loom set forth in claim 9 wherein resilient means supported by the pile wire urges said lever in one direction with respect to the pile wire.

13. The loom set forth in claim 12 wherein the resilient means comprises a leaf spring one end of which is fastened to the pile Wire and the other end of which bears against the lever.

14. In a pile fabric loom having means to form sheds in warp threads and operating with a reed having a range of back and forth motion to beat up weft laid in the shed forward of the reed, a stationary pile wire supported by the loom between said range and said means, said wire extending forwardly through said reed in a direction generally parallel to the warp threads and terminating near the forward limit of said range, a pile former extending through said reed slidable on said pile Wire having the forward end thereof provided with two tuft loop forming parts of different heights said parts being substantially supported by said wire when said loops are formed, pattern mechanism to individually select and control each pile former independently of any other pile former for each pick of the loom, and operating connections on said pile wire intermediate the pattern mechanism and said former to change the position of the latter with respect to said pile wire.

15. In a pile fabric loom having means to form sheds in warp threads, guide means forward of said first named means supported by the loom and extending generally parallel to the warp threads and through the reed, a pile tuft former extending through said reed slidable on said guide means and having the forward end thereof made with two tuft forming parts supported by said guide means when either of said parts is in tuft forming position, and operating means supported by said guide means to move the pile former backwardly and forwardly on said guide means to place either of said parts in tuft forming position and in supported relationship with said Wire at said tuft forming position.

Keen May 4, 1943 Stovall Oct. 1, 1957 

